Just came back from fondling phones at the Verizon store. Top contenders, at least for size and ergs are HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Droid Maxx. Any opinions on these vs. the others mentioned in this thread. I really don't want anything physically larger than these three.

Of those phones, get the HTC M8

HTC M8

HTC One (M8) CDMA - Full phone specifications

Sumsung Galaxy s4 - plastic case

Samsung I9500 Galaxy S4 - Full phone specifications

Droid Maxx - Much lower resolution screen

Motorola DROID Maxx - Full phone specifications

Yeah, that's badass. But it's a lot more $$ than the S4 and I don't know that I'd notice the difference in features.

Probably gonna have to switch from Page Plus to Straight Talk to make this happen, since PP doesn't do SIM cards.

The only thing the S4 has over the HTC is a removable battery. You can keep a spare fully charged and swap it out if you need a quick charge. Otherwise, they are very comparable. Except the HTC is a much higher build quality.

I use the S5. My wife has my "old" S4. It is a great phone.

Once you have your phone, I'll give you some suggestions on Apps. There are things you can do with Android you cannot do with the iOS. Like connect wirelessly to network drives and seamlessly transfer files. You can even share out your SD cards as sharable network drives.

On Amazon, unlocked

HTC One M8 - $650
S4 - $390

Actually, yes you can.

Why is a removable battery a good thing?

I have an external battery that is not any larger than my iPhone and it will recharge my iPhone 4X, I assume it will recharge the S4 or HTC 3-4X. If I'm going to carry something, wouldn't it be better to carry that instead of a battery that gives me just 1X?

Yes, but this way you get 100% in 30 seconds.

You can use the phone when it is recharging.

stomachmonkey and red-beard, plese do start a new thread on how to do this for iOs and Android! This is interesting!

Edit: for Android I use ES file manager

Holger: I also use ES File Explorer

Filebrowser.

Lite (free) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/filebrowserlite/id335493278?mt=8

Business ($5.99) https://itunes.apple.com/app/filebrowser-access-files-on/id364738545?mt=8

SM: What files can you access? I thought Apple locked down most of the files, for example: music files.

Thanks!

In reality nothing is or ever has been locked down.

I've run FUSE for years.

Plug in your phone via USB and it shows up like any other "drive".

Toggle invisibles if what you need is not immediately displayed.

I left Verizon a while ago for Page Plus and am never looking back. Never a problem other than it won't work at all overseas and drops off for about two hours on the day my monthly plan autorenews. I can live with that.http://lifehealthus.com/image/images/28.gif